Blue Apron sees some signs of life as it pulls back its marketing engine

Amid the ever-present specter of Amazon, Blue Apron reported its second-quarter earnings today — where it showed a mixed performance for Wall Street, but also some small much-needed improvements in certain metrics.

The biggest drag on the company was that it said it was paring back its marketing expenses between the first and second quarter, resulting in a 9% decrease in total customers when comparing the second and first quarter this year. Blue Apron saw its burn rise dramatically in the periods before its IPO as it sought to acquire as much of the market as it could in an increasingly competitive industry, and now it’s had to try to show that it can be something that’s wholly sustainable now that it appears very possible that Amazon will try to go after it.

“In the second quarter, we saw an 18 percent year-over-year increase in net revenue, and a $20.6 million improvement in our net loss between the first and second quarters. We recently strengthened our balance sheet as a result of our initial public offering, convertible note issuance and the expansion of our revolving credit facility,” CEO Matt Salzberg said in the earnings release. “We are beginning a new chapter as a public company, and remain focused on our long-term strategy to build an iconic consumer brand, develop a more diverse product portfolio, and further build out an end-to-end supply chain platform.”

But because of that decrease in its costs, the average amount of revenue that it…